While federal workers and beneficiaries are taking an economic hit, the shutdown seems to be proving a financial bonanza for the nation's political consultant class. Both Republicans and Democrats are churning out ads focused on the shutdown. Guess what? Each blames the other for it.

If the government shutdown is going to be resolved, it's going to take compromise by some key players who so far haven't shown much willingness to bend. So who might influence these influentials? Sunlight decided to examine some of the monied interests behind key figures in the debate.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, in many cases the special interests are closely aligned with their beneficiaries' positions in the standoff, which largely revolves around the health care debate.

Here's a closer look:

Barack Obama

The president is the most prodigious fundraising weapon in the Democrats' arsenal. His campaign's success in ...

How something is described often affects how people react to it. So it's interesting, as the Supreme Court begins two days of arguments on how to and who can define marriage, to see how the lawmakers across the street have talked about the same issue.

A look through Sunlight's Capitol Words shows a clear partisan divide: Democrats tend to use the term "gay marriage" while Republicans prefer "same-sex marriage." As you can see in the chart above, the latter term occurs more frequently in congressional debate. The full Capitol Words analysis gives us the party breakdown: Democrats account ...